Ultimate British Pronunciation Ebook [PDF]

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Ultimate British Pronunciation A Complete Course

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Ultimate British Pronunciation A Complete Course By Aly Williams © Papa Teach Me This free eBook will show you the fundamentals of British pronunciation. Also how it differs from American, and how actors can use it to play British people naturally. Use it together with the video course on YouTube to complete your training: http://www.youtube.com/papateachme Follow me:

@papateachme On all social media

HI! I’M ALY! I’LL BE YOUR PRONUNCIATION GUIDE! Before we begin, please ask yourself: “Why are you learning the British accent?” Here Are Three Quick Truths: • It’s NOT a superior accent and it doesn’t sound smarter than other accents. • It’s fine to have a preference for an accent, but it’s just weird to believe in accent superiority. Don’t be weird. • Your accent is your identity and it makes you interesting, and let’s be honest, accents are hot! At the end of each unit of this course, I’ll give you three sentences to try to pronounce using what you’ve learned, sounds from the unit which you can choose to change will be bold and underlined! Cool. Ready? Let’s begin!

Lesson

01

The Glottal T T

he most common thing people say when you ask them to do a British accent is something like this…

Can I have

some wa’er?

Some what?

…Wa’er!?

Here Are Three Quick Truths! • We don’t ALWAYS use the glottal T. • It’s not “stupid” to use the glottal T. It’s just a style. • Even “posh” politicians, and the Queen uses it.

You should know that it’s always best to use a mix of Glottal Ts and True Ts in your speech to give you a natural speaking style. Remember, accent is all about STYLE! The Sound Say “UH-OH!”. Ok, that middle sound, feel how your throat closes the airway, and that stops any sound coming out? THAT’S the sound which will replace the T a LOT in British pronunciation. It’s VERY common to glottalise the T sound at the end of words:

Hot But Not

These Ts will usually be glottalised. …Not ALWAYS… it depends on your style! Play around with it!

Some T sounds will ALWAYS be glottalised… Wet

Some T sounds will NEVER be glottalised…

Kanye WeST

Taylor SwiFT

Also we NEVER glottalise the FIRST And SOMETIMES… It completely depends on your preference…

BeTTer

WaTer

BoTTle

Like I said, use a MIX of glottal Ts and True Ts and you’ll build your own speaking style that’ll sound natural SOMETIMES, there are words which just won’t be glottalised by style, for example: “Italy” You COULD glottalise this T, you don’t have to! It’s your choice!

BUT with the word “Italian” NO ONE would ever glottalise THAT T! Everyone would agree that it would sound weird. Confusing, no? Same with: Photograph (Fine) Photographer (No) Strategy (Fine) Strategic (No You can kind of see a pattern here: A T between two vowel sounds and the second vowel sound is stressed, it’s sort of universally understood that it sounds weird and no one glottalises those. ALSO! What used to be considered purely American pronunciation - when we change the T sound for a D sound - is now pretty widespread in British English, so it won’t sound TOO American if you sprinkled some D sounds in there, like with the word “better”, pronouncing it like “Bedder”. Let’s also mention, what I call the “POSH T”, this is made by the top of the tongue gently tapping the part just behind the top front teeth. If you watch the TV show “The Crown” You’ll hear that style a LOT! Ok now try THESE sentences, try using a MIX of glottal Ts and True Ts, see how it feels. Develop your own style! 1) “It’s hotter than a wet August night in Toronto!” 2) “It’s an absolutely great photo of a turtle” 3) “A better water bottle for the environment”

Lesson

02

Hs and Ls L

isten to how British people talk and you’ll start to notice MORE sounds which either change or are just completely ignored in speech! For example, SOMETIMES when we speak, we omit the H at the start of words. Again, not always, but when we’re speaking quickly or emphasise our dislike for something, BLOODY ‘ELL IT’S FUN! This DOESN’T apply to H sounds in other positions in words! Also, in words which end in an L sound, you might notice that we sometimes change the “L" sound into more of a “W” sound. So “HELL” could sound more like ‘Hew”, or to combine these two things, simply: “EW”

Here Are Three Quick Truths! • Both of these characteristics are VERY common in cockney, and fairly common in general. • Posh twats who speak RP don’t often change these sounds. • BE CAREFUL: This is only for SPOKEN English, definitely not WRITTEN ENGLISH!

Did I mention that it’s always good to use a MIX?! It’s ALWAYS good to use a mix! Change how often you use the Ls and Hs… Variety is both the spice of life, and natural sounding British accents

Just as a reference: My British pronunciation style is pretty standard London, NOT posh but also not Cockney, just somewhere in the middle. Personally I VERY often change the L to a W sound, and only pronounce the True L in situations like this: “WELL! This is rubbish!” Or “This year feels like HELL!” Those two I would pronounce the True L to EMPHASISE my strong feeling about the situation! But again, this isn’t a rule, and you can play with it, see what works for you. Two main things to remember: We’d NEVER change the L to a W sound when the L is at the beginning of a word, OR when it’s separated by two VOWEL sounds… I know that sounds confusing but trust me it’s simple: Metal - Fine to change Metallica - Definitely don’t change this one because there are vowel sounds either side of the Ls Hell - Fine Hello - Don’t change it! Light - Don’t change the L! Ok now try THESE sentences, try using a MIX of points from the last two lessons, see how it feels. Develop your own style! 1) Hello mate! What’s his name? Is it Hector? 2) How much do you hate me? Is it a lot? 3) I have to work late today!

Lesson

03

The schwa /ə/ T

he MOST COMMON sound in British English is the SCHWA! I’m not exaggerating! It’s eeeverywhere so you HAVE to learn it!

When a word finishes with an “R” sound, American English pronounces a heavy “RRRrrr” sound, for example in words like “TeacheRRR”, “DoctoRRR!”, or “ComputeRRR!” British English, however, uses a “Schwa” to replace that “R” sound at the end of words. It’s a lazy “Uh” sound (See the video for this lesson for the audio version!) that you can make by completely relaxing your jaw, tongue, and lips, and simply making a short “uh" sound.

This is the phonetic symbol for the schwa! (You’ll see it in dictionaries)

/ə/

Try to say THESE words using the SCHWA!

Doctor Lawyer Adventure Culture Nature Here Are Three Quick Truths! • This sound is not ‘formal’ or ‘informal’, it’s just a sound we ALL make in British English • It’s probably the biggest part of British pronunciation • Don’t over-exaggerate the schwa sound! It should be a lazy sound just falling out of your mouth!

L Pay attention to which syllable is stressed, the UNSTRESSED syllable will take the SCHWA sound!

.

Oh no! Police! /pǝl ːs/

.

(I apologise if you hate phonetics! You might see them a lot in this ebook!)

Where is the word stress in “Pencil”, “Police”, and “Saturday”?

..

Pencil! /pensǝl/

...

Saturday

/sætəde /

0

So instead of pronouncing the “i” in pencil like an “i”, because it’s part of the non-stressed syllable, it’s a schwa sound. Let’s practice that, then! Ok now try THESE sentences, again, think of everything we’ve learned so far, and develop your own style! From now on, the schwa sounds will be highlighted: 1) Hang on a minute! Is that the police I can hear? 2) Can you pass me a bit of pizza? 3) Are we meeting up Saturday?

Lesson

04

Focus & questions

A

wesome! Now we’re getting somewhere! Let’s use EVERYTHING we’ve learned so far and make some natural British sounding questions!

Remember that unstressed syllables taketh schwa sound? The same is true for WORDS in sentences which are… let’s say… unimportant! Words which, if you removed them, you’d still understand the sentence or question. For example, a general question you might ask someone: “Are you a doctor?” If you just simply said “You…doctor?”, the other person is 100% still going to understand the question, right? So the

“important words” to convey meaning are the focus, and those words are stressed in the sentence. The “unimportant words”, if they’re mostly made up of vowel sounds, take a lazy schwa sound.

..

. . .

“Are you a doctor?” And that’s how sentence stress works, which is a key part of natural British intonation. Which words are the important ones? STRESS THOSE! Ok lets look at how other question words are used with this sound: “Do you…?” questions: We have pronunciation options for this “dʊ jʊ…?“ “dʊ jə…?” “də jʊ…?” “də jə…” “dʒʊ…?” “dʒə…?”

It really doesn’t matter much how you pronounce “Do you…?” from any of these options, but you’ll notice that we use more schwa sounds when we’re speaking quickly, and fewer schwa sounds when we want to emphasise particular words. Example: “I want to order pizza!” “dʊ jʊ?! Yeah me too!“

See, in this case I want to clarify what they said, so I won’t use the schwa sound, however, a general question, speaking quickly: “də jə wanna get a pizza tonight?” It’s a relaxed lazy question, so, I’ll use the schwa sound. Also remember when we use schwa in individual words. I know it’s a lot to remember, but that’s where the videos will help you on this course! Okay, next… “Have you…?” Nice and easy, “əv” For example, try and say this:

“Have you been to Brazil?” /əv jə bɪn tə brəzɪl/

As I mentioned before, the IMPORTANT words that you want to emphasise WON’T have a schwa sound. But let’s say you ask someone if they’ve been to Brazil in that way, “been” and “Brazil” are the focus, because that’s all the information we really need. However, if they then return the question back to YOU, now YOU are the focus, so it’ll sound like this: “Have YOU been to Brazil?” /əv jʊ bɪn tə brəzɪl/ Again, this time “YOU” is the focus of the question, so it WON’T have a schwa sound.

Here Are Three Quick Truths! • Please don’t worry too much about which sound / word should be a schwa, no one is gonna think you’re rubbish at English if you mix things up a bit. • Just focus on which words are important to understand the sentence / question • I told you the schwa is everywhere! Let’s practice that, then! Ok now try THESE sentences! Go slowly and plan HOW you want to try and say them, try few options and see what you like! 1) Have you seen my phone? Is it over there? 2) Do you wanna go out tonight? 3) Are you serious!? Is he really famous?

Lesson

05

TH - F or V? H

ave you seen that show “The Boys”? You. Know Billy Butcher? (Look up a clip on YouTube if not) Notice how he never pronounces the TH sounds like actual TH sounds? That actor is from New Zealand, but he’s playing the most overly-exaggerated Cockney ever!

Do you like my levver jacket? My muvver made it Free years ago!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan! But it really shows that the producers told him to just “Be as Cockney as you possibly can!!!!!”, particularly when you hear how he pronounces his TH sounds! …We’ll talk about the pronunciation problems of actors playing English people in a later lesson! Ok, here’s the quickest lesson of the course! TH sounds in words CAN change to either a V sound or an F sound. How do you know which one? UNVOICED th sounds (No vibration in the throat when making this sound) - Can be changed to an F sound Examples: Three - Free Throughout - Froughout Therapy - Ferapy VOICED th sounds (Vibration in the throat when making this sound) - Can be changed to a V sound Examples: Other - OVer Father - FaVer Leather - LeaVer Here Are Three Quick Truths! • “Posh RP” styles don’t change the TH sound, and it CAN sound more emphatic when you change it. • It’s super common with Cockney, but not limited to Cockney. • I’m not Cockney but sometimes I’ll change the TH to a V, but not the TH to an F… again… that’s MY style, yours will most likely be different! It’s all personal preference

I’ll be honest, this isn’t super common, so definitely don’t think that you SHOULD change the TH sounds to sound natural.

Let’s practice that, then! e’ve learned so far, and develop your own style! Remember there’s no ONE single correct way to pronounce these sentences 1) My mother’s a doctor, my father’s a lawyer 2) Thanks for the leather jacket! 3) How’s your father? FYI: “How’s your father” is a British English expression that we use when we can’t remember the name of something, OR to say something rude, and we pronounce is fast, like it’s one long word. Examples: “What’s the name of the… how’syourfather? The app you use with the good filters?” “OUCH! She kicked the ball right into my how’syourfathers!” It’s kind of old fashioned, but you MIGHT hear it sometimes.

Lesson

06

North vs. South!

S

ay this: “Laugh at the last castle in Bath"

How did you say those “a” sounds? Like “b /æ/ th”? Or “b /aː/ th” (“bARth’) ? This difference in British English pronunciation is called the “trap bath split”, and it’s a good indication of whether you likely grew up in the north or south of England.

Be careful not to change EVERY “a” sound, that would sound mad.

We always get a general idea of where someone grew up in England (the north or south) when we hear how they pronounce words like “Bath”, “Laugh”, “Class”. Northern pronunciation of the “a” is sometimes like /æ/, in words like “clAss”, whereas southern accents tend to use the “AR” sound /aː/, sounding like “clARss” So if you’re playing with different pronunciation styles and one style feels better for you than the other, go for it! It’s all British so don’t worry, just stay consistent to whichever style you choose. However, be very careful not to over-generalise, for example, yes the word “class” in a southern style is like: “clARss” /klaːs/ But not EVERY “a” sound depends on regional pronunciation. For example: “Mad”, “Have”, “Maths” and a few other words universally have the /æ/ soun

Here Are Three Quick Truths! • This is the MOST IMPORTANT aspect to be aware of for actors doing the British accent. • Stay consistent to the accent, doesn’t matter whether you prefer a northern or southern style, just STAY consistent with the pronunciation, otherwise it sounds unnatural! • This is super simplistic of me to say “British” pronunciation is reduced to just the North and South of England, this is because for me to start teaching the Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent would be ridiculous because I’m rubbish at those accents. So, keeping all that in mind, try saying these sentences: 1) I thought you had class! 2) I’m gonna look through the answers 3) Can I get you a glass of water?

Castle or cARstle?

Lesson

07

Actor fails!

T

here’s a reason that Benedict Cumberbatch can play Americans convincingly, but non-English actors often fail at doing convincing British accents. It’s not because British actors are “better” at all. There’s actually a really good reason for it…

"Exposure!” That’s it. That’s all. We, as the rest of the non-American world have been way more exposed to not just an American accent, but a variety of American accents on TV in in Movies due to Hollywood dominance. However, when actors play British people in movies or TV are generally a

stereotype like a shakespearean actor, or incredibly posh (Downton abbey), or Cockney (Mary Poppins). And it’s usually terrible because by comparison, there’s not much British content with real British accents. Here Are Three Quick Truths! • Expose yourself to a RANGE of British styles, then you’ll get a better! • Be EXTRA careful of the North / South divide in pronunciation when developing your pronunciation style! • Look at the list of recommended TV shows and movies if you want to model your pronunciation on a specific regional style.

When developing your British style, definitely pay attention to all the characteristics mentions in this course, the glottal T, the schwa, Hs and Ls, the north/south divide in accents, but also take note of other differences in vowel pronunciation, like the way we pronounce the “O” in words, like “not”, or “got”.

Recommended accent homework:

Expose yourself to a VARIETY of English accents!

Northern (Generic): Game of Thrones (Starks), Coronation street, Shameless (UK) Northern (Brummie): Peaky Blinders (Not Alfie Solomon) Northern (Geordie): Geordie Shore Southern (Posh): Game of Thrones (Lannisters), Downton Abbey, Southern (Generic): Inbetweeners, Sherlock, The Office (UK), Fresh Meat, Have I Got News For You, Gavin and Stacy Southern (Essex / Cockney): The Only Way is Essex, Peaky Blinders (Alfie Solomon), Eastenders,

Lesson

08

Connected speech T

his is final unit. This is where you become a PRO! Also why did I include a photo of Ben Affleck? Not important right now, but you’ll see!

Connected speech is pretty much the difference between sounding like a British robot, and sounding like a British human. It’s literally just about connecting two words together so it flows more naturally. We’ll look at four main points of connected speech in this unit, so you’ll be ready for the final test. Catenation, assimilation, Elision, and intrusion.

Catenation - This is the easiest to explain. Example: “An apple” If you say these words separately, “An….Apple”, it’ll sound robotic and weird, right? But with CATENATION you’ll link the two words together and sound like an awesome, and very good-looking human! When one word finishes with a Consonant sound, and the next word begins with a vowel sound, move the consonant sound to the start of the next word, so it sounds like this: “A Napple” That’s all catenation is! Try these other examples: “Bag of big oranges” “I need a poo” “Can I Plug in my phone?” Assimilation This is when the end of one word mixes into the beginning of the next word. Kind of like catenation, yes, but in this case, the sound actually changes! “NexT Year” If a word ends in a T and the next word begins with a Y, a CH /tʃ/ sound will join the words together, it sounds kind of like “nexCHear”, but you’ll hear an audio version of this in lesson 8 of the course on YouTube!

When you combine a D and Y, it sounds like /dʒ/, so: "Would you…?” Questions could sound like “Wouldʒʊ…?” Or “Wouldʒə…?” And now you see the reason why “do you…?” Questions can be reduced to “dʒʊ…?”, or “dʒə…?” How about: “ThiS Year” S and Y will assimilate into a “SH” /ʃ/ sound, so it sounds like “ThiSHear” Elision This is when the sounds at the end of words are eliminated in order to make the two words sound smoother together. Let’s continue using “NexT Year” as an example. As you’ve learned in this course, you have LOTS of options when it comes to pronunciation! You could connect the two words with assimilation, OR you could remove, or “elide”, that “T” sound from “NexT” so it sounds like: “Nex Year” See? The T sound isn’t pronounced, and it sounds smoother! “Hyde Park" - Not only a great place in London, but also a great example of connected speech! If you’re speaking quickly, the “D” sound and the “P” sound are two “plosive” sounds which, when pronounced together will separate the words a lot, so it sounds smoother to “elide” that last “D”

sound in “Hyde”. It’ll sound like “HyPark” with a bit of a tiny pause the middle. Another example would be: “She walked past me” Simply remove the “D” sound in “walked” and the “T” sound in “Past”. So it sounds something like: “She walkpasme” Again though, this is when you’re speaking quickly, or not emphasising any specific words. Intrusion Consider this sentence: “There’s no better actor in the world than Ben Affleck” We’ve learned about the schwa sound, so we know that the schwa sounds appear here: “There’s no better actor in the world than Ben Affleck” Because the words after the schwa sounds start with vowel sounds, we’ll INTRUDE an audible R sound between the words to connect them, again, so it sounds like one long word. “There’s no betteRactoRin the world than Ben Affleck” “World” doesn’t begin with a vowel sound, hmmm… let’s change this sentence then:

“There’s no betteRactoRin the entire world than Ben Affleck” This time we’re going to connect the words with a Y /j/ sound, like this: “There’s no betteRactoRin thɪːjɪntire world than Ben Affleck” And the final connecting sound: “Go away” We’ll connect these words with a W sound “GoWaway” The easy way to know which sound will intrude between the words is by paying attention to your mouth shape when you say these words. Your mouth shape will be close to one of these sounds /j/, /r/, or /w/. Check the video for this lesson on YouTube for the audio examples of all of these. Ok, the final test, this uses everything we’ve learned through this entire British pronunciation course 1) “I had a burger after class with my mate Paul” 2) “Would you rather have a castle or a boat?” 3) “I wanted to eat something, so I stopped for lunch and had a coffee and pizza”

About the Author Most people write these in third person, but we both know it’s ME writing it, so, hi, I’m Aly! I’ve been teaching English since 2008, I learned that teaching English is a lot like solving puzzles - Looking at something difficult and trying to find the easy way. If I can explain things in the simplest possible way, everyone benefits! I live in London, if you see me around, high five me, I’m very friendly!

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